A former Anglesey councillor and former council housing director has been convicted of endangering jets by shining a powerful torch at jets flying past his home.

John Arthur Jones was said by the prosecution to have become obsessed with activity above The RAF Mona landing strip, repeatedly shone a powerful light at pilots flying Hawk Jets in at night.

The lights came from land owned by Jones at Parc Cefni at Bodffordd, caused dangerous distractions to pilots doing night time training sorties, prosecuting barrister John Philpotts told a jury at Mold Crown Court.

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Jones said his concern was simply for the welfare of the children in a nearby private nursery and was nothing to do with the fact that none of the holiday lodges he was planning on the site had not been sold, allegedly because people were put off by the jet noise.

Defending barrister Lisa Judge said her client was not lamping jets but simply video recording them – and compared him to Victor Meldrew!

She said it was mission impossible because it was not him and his wife, solicitor daughter, army captain son in law, his father in law and a neighbour all gave alibi evidence on his behalf.

But after a retirement of more than four hours the 11-strong jury returned and the forewoman announced that they had found him unanimously guilty on all 13 charges.

Judge Geraint Walters agreed to a defence request that the case should be adjourned for a pre-sentence report and said Jones would be sentenced at Caernarfon CC on August 1.

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It had an important, relief landing strip at RAF Mona, close to the defendant’s property, which had been in use for over a century.

An important part of their training was night flying, including training for safe take-off and landing in the dark.

“In a nutshell, the case for the prosecution is that the defendant endangered aircrafts and their pilots by shining a bright light into the cockpits of Hawk Jets as they prepared to land,” said Mr Philpotts.

“He became displeased by the aviation activity in the skies near his land.”

The defendant was so annoyed that he threatened at one point to raise a weather balloon above his land as an airborne obstruction to the activity of the aircraft, although he did not do so.

“It is the prosecution case that he became obsessed with the activity of the aircraft flying out,” he said.